Bobby Fischer Challenge

All Things Chess
1

Greetings,

This week’s newsletter features my Bobby Fischer Challenge. I attempt to go 11-0 in 3 events in May, while the US Championship is being won by GM Nakamura. Also, Fred got me a couple of times in his Chess Night newsletter. You can view the photos here:

Imre v Paul:
cschess.webs.com/apps/photos/pho … =157423096

KFC v Panera:
cschess.webs.com/apps/photos/pho … =157423097

I’ll Have The Soup And Chess:
cschess.webs.com/apps/photos/pho … =157422706

Don’t forget the JUNE MATING GAME (6/12 and 6/19, USCF-rated, 4SS, G/30, only $5 at the club, PRIZES!)

Peace be with you,

Paul Anderson

Read The Newsletter!
( cschess.webs.com/apps/blog/entri … -challenge )

  1. Game Of The Week: Bobby Fischer Challenge
  2. This Week In Chess: Player’s Choice Quad Results
  3. Game Viewer: Paul Anderson v Anthea Carson ( cschess.webs.com/ )
  4. Video: Family Ties On Fischer v Spassky (youtube.com/watch?v=UKCg95Md97k)

2012 Calendar Of Events for the Colorado Springs Chess Club:

cschess.webs.com/apps/calendar/

For additional events, see the following websites:

Denver Chess Club: DCC (denverchess.com)
Colorado State Chess Association: CSCA (colorado-chess.com/)
Wyoming Chess Association: WCA (wyomingchess.com/)
Kansas Chess Association: KCA (kansaschess.org/)

ps - Newsletter preview with pgn (for board diagram and video see The Newsletter):

This week’s game comes from my Bobby Fischer Challenge. I had this idea that, since I was not playing in the 2012 US Championship and actually eligible for the $64,000, I would create my own Bobby Fischer Challenge.

In 1963-64, Bobby Fischer went 11-0 in the US Championship. Not only did he win the title of best chess player in the US for that year, he also did it without losing or drawing a game. This feat is possibly the greatest achievement in organized sports. Sure the Miami Dolphins went 17-0 in 1972. However, avoiding a drawn game in football is far easier than in chess, especially since playoff games in football cannot end in draws.

My Bobby Fischer Challenge included two 5 round events (Wednesday & Thursday Panera) and a 3 round event (club Quad). Therefore, I would have to win 11 games and take 2 byes. It would be a record for me to win more than 8 USCF-rated games in a row. So, 11 was definitely going to be a challenge, but I thought I had a good shot as these one-game-a-week, G90 Panera events have been good for me. The risky part was going to be the G30 Quads, where upset are a regular occurrence.

My Wins/Games since 2011

25.5/40=63.75% quick (<30min)

51.5/72=71.53% regular (30min-60min)

29.0/35=82.86% 90+min

Well, the difficulties began early. In round 1 of the Thursday Panera, I found myself in this position with a weak and feeble brain. I decided not to put any thought into my move and just trust my instincts. Can you find the tactic…

[Event “May Panera Thursday”]
[Site “http://cschess.webs.com/”]
[Date “2012.05.03”]
[Round “1.2”]
[White “Anderson, Paul”]
[Black “Carson, Anthea”]
[Result “0-1”]
[ECO “A45”]
[WhiteElo “2015”]
[BlackElo “1724”]
[PlyCount “90”]
[EventDate “2012.05.03”]
[TimeControl “5400”]

  1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5 c5 3. Bxf6 gxf6 4. dxc5 Qa5+ 5.
    Nc3 Qxc5 6. Qd5 e6 7. Qxc5 Bxc5 8. Ne4 Be7 9. O-O-O d5 10. Nc3 Bd7 11. e3 a6
  2. Nf3 Nc6 13. Na4 Bd6 14. Nb6 Rd8 15. Kb1 Ke7 16. Nxd7 Rxd7 17. Nd4 Rc8 18.
    Be2 Ne5 19. Rd2 Nc4 20. Bxc4 Rxc4 21. Rhd1 Rdc7 22. f4 f5 23. Rd3 Kd7 24. Rf1
    h5 25. Rf3 Be7 26. Rd2 h4 27. Nxf5 exf5 28. Rxd5+ Ke6 29. Re5+ Kf6 30. c3 b5
  3. a3 Rd7 32. Kc2 Re4 33. Rxe4 fxe4 34. Rh3 Kf5 35. b3 Kg4 36. a4 f5 37. Kc1
    Rd3 38. axb5 axb5 39. Kc2 Bf6 40. c4 bxc4 41. bxc4 Be7 42. Kb2 Rd2+ 43. Kb3
    Rxg2 44. Rxh4+ Kxh4 45. Ka4 Rb2 0-1
2

I disagree about it being the greatest feat in organized sports but it is just a matter of opinion.

~ Wilt Chamberlain never fouled out of a game.
~ 88 games won in a row by UCLA basketball
~ 24 consecutive winning decisions by Carl Hubbell (1936-37)
~ The only modern Olympian to go unbeaten throughout his entire career, 187 consecutive matches including 1964 Tokyo Olympics by Osamu Watanabe

and many more.

Fischer’s feat was remarkable but many other remarkable streaks exist all across the sports pantheon. Fischer was so much better than his contemporaries that there were only a few critical games in the streak at US championships. Players today have a much tougher field to go against, I suggest.

3

Two other records stand out in my lifetime:

  • Wilt’s 100 point game
  • Secretariat winning the Belmont by 31 lengths.

These records are up there with the 11-0 Fischer exploit. These 3 records probably won’t ever be duplicated.

4

Yhe Boston Celtics once scored something like 170 points in one game. Maurice Podoloff thought it called for an investigation.

5

You would have had a lot more credibility if you hadn’t started with this one. I would imagine thousands of players could claim this. Heck, I could even claim this one (thanks to the fact that I rarely played basketball). But I would guess that the 11th guy on an NBA team is doing this most years.

I will have to check into the other ones. At least they sound impressive.

Also, I think I remember Rocky Marciano went unbeaten in his career.

6

Moderator Mode: Off

Wilt Chamberlain never fouled out of a game and that is a fact that he was very proud.

7

I doubt anyone ever played over 1000 NBA games, over 45 minutes per game, without fouling out. Except Chamberlain.

8

A Capablanca simultaneous exhibition in Cleveland in 1922 had the result of 102 wins and 1 draw. A couple more points than Wilt Chamberlain. :slight_smile: He played a number of simuls in the city over the years, thumping the locals pretty handily. Just to be fair, in Pittsburgh, in 1916, the great master scored 51 wins and 1 draw on one of his US tours.

9

(I know this is a chess forum, but for those who might not understand why Mr. DeCredico’s use of Wilt Chamberlain is accurate, the following is for you.)

Chamberlain played 14 years in the NBA. He left the league with all-time scoring and rebounding records. He won seven scoring titles, and 11 rebounding titles. He was the number one target for opposing defenses, and would certainly have led the league in blocked shots numerous times had that stat been kept officially during his career. (He even led the NBA in assists once.)

And he had to bang regularly against Hall of Fame post players like Bill Russell, Dolph Schayes, Bob Pettit, Walt Bellamy, Jerry Lucas, Willis Reed, Elvin Hayes, Wes Unseld, Nate Thurmond, Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Chamberlain lost to Alcindor in the '71 conference finals, and beat Abdul-Jabbar in the '72 conference finals), Bob Lanier, Artis Gilmore, Dave Cowens and Billy Cunningham. Keep in mind, too, that the NBA was about a third as big during Chamberlain’s career as it is now - so he had to face all these guys about 3x as often as he would have in today’s NBA.

And, of course, Chamberlain was targeted by other teams for hard fouls throughout his career, even in his last few years with the Lakers, when his knees were about gone.

Despite all that, in a career spanning 1,205 regular-season and playoff games, Chamberlain never once fouled out. I don’t know about you, but I’d say that’s pretty impressive.

10

Oddly enough, no one in this thread has yet mentioned Fischer winning 20 consecutive games in the 1970-72 WC cycle. I think that might be more likely to go unreplicated than his US Championship whitewash.

A few other jaw-dropping sports records to consider…

  • Edwin Moses’ 122 consecutive 400-meter hurdles wins from 1977 to 1987
  • Byron Nelson’s 1945 PGA season, with 11 consecutive wins and 18 total wins
  • Cal Ripken’s 2,632 consecutive MLB games played
  • Otto Graham: Eleven seasons as a professional athlete, eleven championship game/series appearances (10 NFL, 1 NBA/NBL)
  • Don Hutson, who led the NFL in touchdowns, kicking and interceptions in various seasons during his 11-year career

Finally, there is one number that is just absolutely ridiculous to even contemplate. I don’t put it on the same level as these other accomplishments, because these are all against professional competition, but still…

In 1990, Lisa Leslie scored 101 points in the first half of a high school basketball game. The opposing team forfeited rather than come out for the second half.

11

As of Dec. 2011 John Curdo has won over 865 chess tournaments according to Wikipedia.

12

Johnny Vander Meer throwing back-to-back no-hitters. While somebody might duplicate that one day, I doubt it, but it’s possible; a computer would probably laugh at you if you asked for the odds of someone throwing three in a row.

13

IM Jay Bonin has played well over 3,300 USCF-rated tournaments since late 1991 (the vast majority of them being open tournaments with players of all ratings, and other tournaments where many of the players were rated up to 2700+), and about another thousand or so before that, give or take a few hundred tournaments here and there, and he apparently has kept his rating over 2300 during that entire time. I don’t know how many actual individual game wins that translates to, but I bet it’s a pretty big number. But it takes so long and uses up so much bandwidth to display all of Jay’s tournaments, I don’t want to crash the USCF computer to actually double-check this.

And as far I can recall for the last 30 or so years, give or take a few years here and there, Jay has also not initiated any disputes. He’s never even come remotely close to fouling out.

Someone else might do this someday too; I doubt it, but it’s possible. But the computer would probably laugh at me if I asked what the odds might be for someone else to actually do that.

14

Most of those responses are fantastic and all, but most of them are in the context of team sports. Not really analogous unless it’s the track examples. Jay Bonin is like the Cal Ripken Jr of US chess.

Anyway…

I would like to know which strain of Colorado’s finest medicinal remedies Paul was smoking when he played 27. Nxf5??? :stuck_out_tongue:

15

I love this one! One of the reasons I like chess better than any other sport is because you can and should resign. It is nice to see it can happen in another sport.

Sometimes resignation is your best move!

16

Them Interwebs got a whole lotta that bandwidth nowadays, Steve. :laughing:

Just for drill, I assembled (what I think is) an accurate profile of IM Bonin’s regular-rated and dual-rated activity since 11/1/1991, per MSA records.

Over the past 20+ years, Bonin has…

played 10,817 regular- or dual-rated games (+6736 =2615 -1466).
played 2,549 unique regular- or dual-rated tournaments.
maintained a USCF rating no lower than 2324.

Again, this does NOT include events that were only quick-rated (which excludes 825 events from his overall MSA history, if my math is right), and does NOT include any activity from before 11/1/1991.

Put another way, for over 20 years, Bonin has played about 10 rated games a week, the vast majority against master/expert competition, and he isn’t close to his floor, or his low rating over that period. In fact, he is currently over 2400.

His FIDE rating has also not dropped below 2300 since at least the year 2000 (that’s as far back as I can see on his online player card), except for the April 2006 list (2299) and the March 2011 list (2296). In both cases, he was back over 2300 FIDE on the next list.

I realize that some people may not find any of this even mildly impressive, let alone mind-boggling. I’ll have to emphatically part company with those people.

17

Jay Bonin never fouled out, either, I believe.

I think you might say Wilt Chamberlain was the Jay Bonin of basketball.

18

That last comment has a good point.

I am about 50% of Chamberlain’s games so far and have committed ZERO fouls. Not even whistled one time. At this pace, I am going to crush Chamberlain!

19

Well…you might say that. :laughing: